ASST TEACHER EXAM: 8 HELD FOR DUPING ASPIRANTS
PRAYAGRAJ: The Soraon police late on Thursday night busted a gang of fraudsters who duped teacheraspirants on the pretext of helping them crack the assistant teachers’ recruitment examination that was held for recruiting 69,000 teachers in 2019.
Police arrested eight persons in this connection and recovered cash and documents from their possession. The accused are being further questioned to identify other members of the gang, police officials said.
According to reports, alleging fraud an aspirant Rahul Singh of Pratapgarh lodged a complaint that some persons took Rs 7.50 lakh from him for helping him crack teacher recruitment examination. However, his name was not on the list of successful candidates when the results were declared.
On the instructions of SSP Satyarth Anirudh Pankaj, an FIR was lodged against Rudra Pati Dubey, Shashi Prakash Saroj, Harikrishna Saroj, Kamal Patel, Ranjeet, KL Patel, Mayawati and Alok Saroj.
Late on Thursday night, Soraon police arrested six persons in an SUV involved in the racket which included some agents who used to contact the aspirants. The answer sheets were printed in code language on the handkerchiefs which the aspirants took with them inside the examination hall. The aspirants gave Rs1 lakh as advance while the remaining amount was to be given after declaration of results.
The gang members took the
original mark sheets and other documents from at least 20 candidates in Prayagraj and other districts as security which was returned after payment of the full amount. The arrested persons were returning after collection of cash from successful aspirants when they were intercepted by the police team. After confession, two other gang members were also arrested later. A cash Rs 7.56 lakh, mark sheets of many aspirants, other documents along with a diary containing details of candidates were recovered from the accused. It is reported that kingpin of the gang is KL Patel, former Zila panchayat member of Phoolpur who runs four colleges. Further questioning from the accused is on to trace other persons involved in the racket. Luxury cars, cash and forged documents including appointment letters of a government department have been recovered from them, SSP Satyarth Anirudh Pankaj said.
MODUS OPERANDI
Police officials said former Zila panchayat member KL Patel was the kingpin of the gang while other members were given separate tasks including approaching the aspirants who were preparing for competitive examinations.
The aspirants were lured and cash up to Rs 8 lakh was demanded from them in return of helping pass the competitive examination. Patel used to take examination centre at his colleges where question papers were leaked.
The question papers were provided to aspirants who used to take solved answers printed in code language on handkerchiefs. The gang was also involved in counselling and appointment of the candidates.